Tag: travelogue

Munnar was the only location, where we were scheduled to stay for two nights means full one day for the place as the day next, we were to leave as early as possible to reach Bangalore in time.

When we woke up, it was raining but nevertheless, we got ready and then by 7.30 AM, we would have been on nearby restaurant for a heavy breakfast. After which we started driving after 8.30 AM. This time we had hired a guide to drive with us and show us around @ 500Rs.

It continued to rain though we had hopes that it would settle till the time we reach to the viewpoints and luckily it happened that way.

We all waited for morning to have more fun on beach, elders and kids alike. The first job in morning to get ready after bath etc and head to beach with sand castle tools.

We must have reached the beach by 7 AM. The lighthouse wasn’t gonna open before 10AM which means it wouldn’t cut into our schedule. It was all about the time on beach now and mild showers were worrying us.

What better feeling than to watch the sunrise at the last end of your country with 360 degree of sea view around and that too under a cloudy and less warm weather. Would admit we wouldn’t have preferred cloudy but a clear sky but every weather has its own texture and should be taken as such.

Morning started with mild showers and we had to take umbrellas from the hotel. The excitement to walk towards the end of the country boundary was just something else.

Changing colors with each passing minute, the place is worth spending the entire day just sitting on that stone bridge.

The view, the showers, people trying to sell sea shells and even tea vendors doing ferry on that small but not that crowded place, if it wasn’t about rains and specially kids, then we would have stayed much more longer there but then guarding kids on that place where both side it was heavy waves, our mind was asking us to move from there.

Finally this was the day for which kids been waiting for. Sand castles on sea beach, but they had to wait little more as elders needed to visit Rameshwaram temple. No photos as cameras were not allowed in temples. We woke up early, taken bath, did Manidarshan, but going for “22 Kund snan” was kind of tough with kids around so we chosen the short route. By some 8.15 AM, we would have been free to drive again after checking out from hotel.

We reached Danushkodi by 9 AM where we were stopped some 5-6 kms before by a check-post in name of “Road construction” which meant we weren’t allowed to go further at this weather at least. An impromptu parking spot it was from where pvt ferries used to take people to a certain point (Not the last end) on a cost from off-road route. It might look like just a line in maps, but including the shores, its around 500 mtr wide place which stretches around 7kms from north to south. It shares ONLY land border between Sri Lanka and India which is one of the smallest in world at 45 mtrs in length. (of course we didn’t made it to that point).

This place is actually called as “Ghost Town” due to a tragedy back on 22 December, 1964 which wiped out roughly 1800 people including those 115 passengers on Pamban-Dhanushkodi passenger train. After that railways station was wiped out and the train never began its operations. A commission looked into possibility of new rail in 2010 and last year a road was constructed till this point.

Anyway… we went into history of the place… let’s come back to travelogue…

I might have written more than 5-6 travelogues over social media and blog, but the one particular blog post which might have given most comments, calls, emails, was Delhi to Manali trip. Even when it wasn’t a satisfying one considering the fact that we skipped Solang Valley, didn’t spend much time over Rohtang and didn’t even stopped for Kullu or Naggar Castle. This must give you an idea that how much Delhi wishes to conquer upon those Himalaya hills in comparison to nearby destinations like Nainital, Mussoorie etc. but the distance of 600km+ deters majority of them as skeptics.

Answered a number of queries on the particular Manali trip from 2014 to readers, while I was asking from self that when I am gonna makeup for the mistakes of last trip by driving the same destination yet again. There were four hill trips in last year, but this particular year 2015 wasn’t going very lucky about that. I did took a small trip to Rishikesh, but that was nowhere close to be even counted properly in hill trips. So, there was on hill trip on the card before July starts (got shifted to end of July later on) and brings along wife’s job, my job and kiddo’s school etc..